Dota 2 International prize pool surpasses $18m

The prize pot for The International 5 has passed the $18 million mark just hours before teams are due to meet in the final week of competition. The pool is powered by sales of the TI5 Compendium, a virtual book that grants you in-game cosmetics as you level it up. 25% of Compendium profits go to the TI5 pool, while the rest—some $54m—is poured into a Scrooge McDuck style money ocean beneath Valve HQ.

The International kicks off in a few hours shortly after 10am PDT / 6pm GMT. You can watch it here, the Dota 2 client, or using Valve's very fancy new streaming beta, which includes built in stat-tracking, chat and a live minimap of the action. It's also streaming on Twitch and YouTube.

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.